MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — Owners of businesses in John’s Pass Village spent much of the day Thursday cleaning up the aftermath of Tropical Storm Eta.
Angela Wilson, who owns Mad Beach Water Sports, is one of the business owners impacted by floodwaters from the storm on Wednesday night.
“It was like a river coming through here,” Wilson said.
Wilson knew Eta was coming and told us she did the best she could to prepare.
“We had actually taken everything out of our store within a box trailer,” said Wilson.
While her merchandise was saved, much of the inside of her business suffered damage.
“Our dock along the sea wall is going to have to be repaired. And this right here is what we use for our flooring and, gosh, it’s a mess – you know?” Wilson said as she pointed to flooring that had to be torn up after it suffered water damage.
Dylan Hubbard and his family have been a part of John’s Pass for decades. Hubbard also knew Eta would cause trouble.
“When we saw low tide being as high as it was, we knew at high tide that we were going to get a big surge,” said Hubbard.
The surge came – and brought with it water and sand into Hubbard’s Marina.
“I mean, an incredible amount of water. Huge wave action. It was really, really – got a little hairy there closer to around 9 o’clock,” said Hubbard.
He also had workers cleaning up for most of the day.
“We were expecting the surge, we prepared for the surge and we got water in our office,” Hubbard said. “We got a lot of water on our docks, and our beach cabana location was totally washed out.”
Many of the businesses at John’s Pass Village were able to open on Thursday, but it took a lot of sweat and effort by some to make it happen.
